Sigmund Freud,originator of psychoanalytic technique, would turn over in his grave at distortions of his theories by promoters of Dianetics

DIANETICS made its debut as an article in
Astounding Science-Fiction, a pulp magazine de.
voted to weird tales of time ships and moon men.

By ELAINE C. STEWART

In the center of a semi-darkrened room,
a woman lay limply on a couch. Around
her in the shadowy light a group of
people sat, silently, listening to the
monotonous voice of a dark man bent close
to the couch. "When I count to five," he said,
"your somatic strip will go down the time
track, down, down to the earliest moment
of pain before birth." .

The woman on the couch stirred. The
room grew completely quiet. "Where are
you now on the time track?" he asked softly,.

For a moment the woman did not answer.
"I am born," she said hesitantly. "I am just
being born. All around me I see red arid
white, lots of white. My father is standing
at the door asking to come in but the nurse
says, "Don't come in now, don't come in
now, don't come in now... ."

The dramatic scene just described was
witnessed by me. It too], place in the Hub-
bard Dianetic Research Foundation at 55
East 82nd Street, New York City. Its
purpose was to demonstrate the therapeutic,
process to students studying Dianetics.

For anyone who hasn't heard about Di-
anetics, it is a brand new "we cure every-
thing" cult. A crude take-off on Freudian
psychoanalysis, Dianetics purports to re;
lieve all mental and physical ailments by
helping the patient re-experience painful
episodes. Unlike psychoanalysis, however, it
has more practitioners than patients. .

THE reason for this is that anyone with
enough interest in the subject, and $500, can
become a professional "auditor" (Dianetics
for practitioner) by enrolling in the
Hubbard Dianetics Training School for a quick
four weeks course. Upon graduation, the,
auditor can claim $25 an hour for his
services. But still another way to become an
auditor is open to the average man. L. Ron
Hubbard says that after reading his book
"Dianetics; the Modern Science of Mental
Health" (Hermitage House, $4.00) you can
practice auditing on your friends and when
you feel confident, hang out your brass
shingle!

A week before witnessing the demonstration
by the Hubbard group, I saw a similar
scene take place in a New York apartment.
The woman in this case was a highly
disturbed person. (I knew because her doctor,
worried about this venture into Dianetics,
had briefed me beforehand on the case.)

Bothered by her constant anxiety and her
seemingly overwhelming problems, she
came here to seek help. She is a sick woman
and needs treatment for a serious mental
illness. Psychoanalysis might help her, a
stay in a mental hospital or psycho-therapy
could be the answer. What she must have,
and quickly, if she is to regain her health,
is immediate diagnosis and care by a
competent, trained and experienced doctor.
Instead, she has put herself into the hands
of Dianetics, and her auditor three months
ago was driving a bus in Long Island.

A highly imaginative person, the bus
driver was an avid reader of the weird
stories published by a pulp magazine which,
using some scattered scientific facts, creates
fantastic tales of wars on the moon, time
ships which travel to the pastor future and
horrible monstrosities who will someday
rule the earth.

While glancing through a copy of "As-
tounding Science-Fiction" he noticed an
article by one of his favorite "Astounding"
writers, L. Ron Hubbard. The subject was
Dianetics, a method of treating all mental
illness! He was immediately fascinated. And
even more so, when he read that anyone
could become a "practitioner" after read-
ing the book.

The bus driver bought the book. He pored
over it carefully. Uneducated, ignorant, he
had no previous knowledge of psychiatry
,and was unable to recognize the handy ap-
plication of Freudian terms, twisted around
to fit this pseudo-science, Dianetics sounded
easy to him. All you had to do was repeat'
a few phrases to the patient, listen to him
recount his painful experiences, convince
him he could remember what happened to
him before lie was born, and collect a nice '
tat $25 an hour If others could do it, why
not he? -

The bus driver quit his job. lie began
practicing what he had learned in the book
on his friends. And soon he was teaching
others, giving demonstrations in his small
apartment and treating patients at $25 an
hour. Some time later the woman whose
case was described to me by this physician
came to him for help.

Not a doctor, or even someone experi-
enced in recognizing serious emotional dis-
turbances, he had no idea that this woman
was suffering from a severe mental illness. '
That she needed immediate confinement in
a mental hospital and was a real danger to
herself and others.

All he knew was what he learned in Dia-
netics. When the patient rambled incoher-
ently for hours, he would refer to the book.
"Now who was it that used to talk like
that?" he'd plead. "We gotta get rid of that '
'engram'." But the woman kept right on rambling.
She kept right on hearing voices and many
of her insane delusions were deeply encour-
aged.Dianetics is a serious danger to this woman's life.
If she continues tier treatment,
she may become hopelessly, incurably insane.

The medical doctor who related the case
to me knows the woman's family. They are
ashamed of the stigma of insanity and refuse
to put her in, the hands of a reputable
psychiatrist. They don't believe Dianetics
will help her but feel at a loss to face the
problem. So, their sister, wracked by her
illness, is desperately trying to get help in the
only way she knows. r

SUPPOSEDLY, Dianetics is a cure-all.
Hubbard, the inventor of the theory, claims
to cure with it any mental ill: psychoses,
neuroses, compulsions, repression s, as well
as the whole list of psychosomatic ills
including asthma, ulcers, bursitis and diabetes:
And a spokesman for Hubbard
confidentially told me; "We think even' cancer
is caused by engrams ... we're working on
it right now."

The theory behind Dianetics is that the
human mind is divided into two parts.
Stealing more than a little from Freud,
Hubbard explains them as the analytical
mind and the reactive (subconscious) mind.
But the reactive mind, he says, is constantly
recording. It is especially active when its,
owner is unconscious. When an individual
is drugged, knocked out-or unborn-the
reactive mind is busily recording (just like,
a phonograph) pain, or unpleasant
experiences. Similar to traumas, these
experiences (called engrams by Hubbard) are
busiest before birth. According to the
theory, every harsh word that parents say,'
or physical shock, makes a cellular impres-
sion on the foetus and forms the basis for
all emotional difficulties encountered in life,

"As a matter of fact," one top auditor said
blithely, "we consider birth a late life
experience. By that time most of the engram
damage has been done!" .

The solution to this, Hubbard claims, is
to get the engrams out of the reactive mind
into the "memory bank" (conscious mind)
making them harmless memories. When all
the engrams have been released (by
repetition largely of prenatal "memories") the
patient reaches the Dianetic optimum and is
henceforth known as a "clear." A "clear" is
a super-man type person supposedly far
superior to normal. He has no problems, no
psychosomatic illness, has high intelligence,
increased hearing and vision, creative
imagination and is utterly incapable of error.

This comes about, says Dianetics, after
getting rid of your first engram (called
"basic" which took place some time before you
were born). Only then can you try to find
the "basic-basic" engram that you received
the the instant of conception, or earlier.
Fantastic as it sounds, Dianetics claims that
the "time track" (where memory slides
back automatically) divides into a Y, one
side going back into your mother's ovum,
the other side retreating into father's sperm!
Dianetic auditors claim that you can repeat
your parents' exact words up to 112 hours
before the sperm met the ovum,

Is Dianetics a fraud? In seeking an
answer to this question I personally
investigated the facts of Dianetics.

First, I discovered, Dianetics is sweeping
the country. Originally written as an article
in "Astounding-Science Fiction" in May,
1950, the book, "Dianetics," was published
in June, 1950. In July its author, L. Ron
Hubbard, opened the Hubbard Dianetic
Research Foundation Elizabeth, New Jersey,
and immediately started training auditors,
who in turn trained more auditors who set
up practices both in New York and New
Jersey. During the summer, the book
climbed near the top of the New York Times
best-seller list and by the end of the
summer more than 75,000 copies had been sold.
The book's publisher, Hermitage House,
said, "At least 500,000 people are talking
Dianetics and we predict this figure will hit
the million mark in, six rnonths."

In my search for the truth about Dianetics,
the first person I was able to interview was
the editor of Astounding-Science Fiction. I
had been told he was one of the sponsors of
Dianetics and had published Hubbard's
article describing it. Furthermore, he was a
personal friend of Hubbard, had bought his
fiction previously for the magazine and had
collaborated with him on many
"Astounding" stories. He is also the Treasurer of the
Hubbard Dianetics foundation.

Coincidentally, Astounding Science-Fiction is also located in Elizabeth, New Jersey, blocks away from the
Hubbard Foundation. Its
editor, John W. Campbell Jr. talked
at me for three hours, repeating
over and over again that Dianetics
is the outstanding discovery of the
ages, He quoted Hubbard's "modest"
foreword to his book, where
he says, "The creation of Dianetics
is a milestone for Man comparable
to his discovery of fire and supe-
rior to his inventions of the wheel
and arch."

He convinced me of his genuine
interest in Dianetics. He also
convinced ne of hls fanaticism. A tall
man with thinning sandy hair and
eyes which seemed wavering because
of his heavy-lensed glasses,
Campbell leaned back in his
swivel chair and told me about
Dianetics, in answer, to my repeated
question as to the scientific
proof of Dianetics, the hours of
clinical research on patients and
the case histories experimentally
evaluated, he answered impatiently.

"The trouble is, everyone wants
proof, in engineering, you can take
an old breadboard, rig up a rough
circuit and fiddle around with it.
So it doesn't work. So you try some
more. You've got this idea, and
you keep trying until it works.
You don't have any proof, but you
know that it works. That's the way
it is with Hubbard and Dianetics.
He doesn't have any proof but he
knows it works"

Is this the modern, scientific
method of mental healing? Ex-
perimenting with millions of lives
on the basis "he knows it works"?

Campbell talked on and on,
"Take a manic-depressive," he
said. "In a half hour he could walk
out of here -- after I give him a little
treatment-and he'll be on top of
the world."

According to Campbell, Dianetics is
the positive remedy for all
psychosomatic ailments, and the
causes are simple commands or
actions which happened before birth.
Multiple sclerosis, for example,
which is the disintegration of the
nerves and a fatal disease, is
caused, says Campbell, by
"Mamma" using a corrosive douche in
order to get rid of the baby. The
surface layer of the cells becomes
scalded and years and years later
the patient develops the disease.
Stuttering comes from a command
engram which says "Don't talk"
and disturbed thyroid generally
stems from an accident where
the gland was injured and patient is
told "Don't move." Therefore the
thyroid gland, hearing this, does not move
back and repair Itself.

While he talked Campbell got
out of his chair and reached into
a case. He took out a nose syringe,
tilted his head back and sprayed
some medicine into his nose. "Don't
think I couldn't cure this sinusitis,"
he said, "I'm just not interested in
that particular engram."

How sure is the dianetic cure?
"Wa-a-al", he drawled, "Ron is so
sure of it that he could offer a
money-back guarantee. I wouldn't
like this to get around, but we had
a saying, around here, 'Give me
$600 and your neurosis and I'll
take away both of them!'

"But Ron run into a little trouble
once. He tried to cure a man of
stuttering but wasn't getting very
far. Then he discovered that the
patient had a money engram and
hated to pay for anything. When the
$600 if cured, the engram wouldn't
let him. So now we collect by the
hour. It works better that way.
Besides that's what all those analysts
do over in New York"

Dianetics also claims a quick
cure for homosexuality. The dianaticists
pooh-pooh the Oedipus
theory of psychology or sex
identification or any real life,
emotional disturbances as causing this
problem. It all comes from a prenatal
command, they say.

Campbell gave an example, Mamma
and Papa are to blame for
homosexuality in 100 per cent of
the cases by their conversations
before birth. (One thing I noted Is
the way Dianetic disciples speak
of parents. They call them Mamma
and Papa and in a singularly
calloused tone. Especially Mamma.
They seem to have very little use
for her.)

"You see, chances are Mamma
has been playing around;" said
Campbell, "Papa knows it, gives
Mamma a punch in the stomach.
This knocks the kid unconscious.
Mamma cries and screams, swears
the baby is his, but he gives her
another punch in the stomach and
says 'It better be mine, It better
be exactly like me, or by God, I'll
wring its neck' Then the kid turns
out to be a girl and what happens?
She goes through life trying to be
just like Papa and ends up a lesbian."

As for male homosexuals, they
are usually caused, according to
this theory, when a tearful mother
shouts to the father, "You do every
thing wrong. You're always doing
things upside down. You never do
anything right" So, little Johnny
grows up and hates girls because
girls are the 'right' thing.

By this time, my head was spinning.
Surrounded in this small
dust-cluttered office by thousands
of fantastic storied magazines and
a man leaning over his desk at me
with an intense gleam in his eye.
I felt the over-powering implications
of such a theory and the effect it
could have on millions of
lives. As I left for my appointment
at the Hubbard Dianetics Foundation,
Campbell "confidentially"
told me about his personal life, "I
have two children," he said, "and
I use Dianetics on them all the
time. You ought to use it on yours."

"Is your wife interested in Dia-
netics?" I asked. His face clouded.
"She's so full of engrams that she
wouldn't even let herself be audited.
I had to divorce her for that reason;"
he said bitterly. "One of her worst
engrams kept screaming 'I've got to
get out of here. I'll go mad, mad!' "

I thanked Mr. Campbell for the
interview and left quickly.
Over at the Hubbard Research
Dianetic Foundation, several
blocks from Science-Fiction, I met
the other representatives of Dianetics.
Housed in a sixteen room
floor of an aged building, the offices
were complete with army cots
(as couch substitutes) and
diplomas issued by the Foundation
hung on every wall.

I met the top auditors and teaching
staff at the Foundation. Although it is
called a Research Foundation, according to
Campbell, no research is being done
there. The Dianetics Foundation
is run as a training school for auditors.
It is open to anyone with the
time and money and interest to
enroll. The course is four weeks
long and the fee is $500. It is not
necessary to be audited yourself
beforehand nor are you "cleared"
before you go to work on other
patients.

As a matter of fact I could not
discover a "clear" in Hubbard's,
organization. I asked over and
over, again to meet someone who
was considered "clear" so that I
could see for myself what such a
remarkable specimen looks like.
One of the officers laughed. "It's
the funniest thing in the world,"
he said. "Everyone wants to see a
clear. But we hide them away.
After all, this isn't a side show.
You might just as well ask me for
a two-headed man to gape at!"

A two-headed man?

Of the top people in Hubbard's
organization I did not personally
meet anyone with a previous
knowledge of psychology. Most of
them, including Hubbard, Campbell
and all the top auditors, were
electrical and radio engineers who
were loyal readers of Astounding
Science Fiction, None of them had
a background in mental healing,
and all had started their own
training just a few months before,
One dark-haired young man, who
told a long story of how his eyes
bothered him since his mother fell
when eight months pregnant caus-
ing his foot to jam in one eye, had
been a radio engineer with
Western Electric for nine years before
meeting Hubbard. Another had
taught television engineering at a
trade school, And the head of their
New York branch, sister of the
doctor who wrote the book's foreword,
a lady who had previously
been forelady in a factory which
made sweaters for Brooks Brothers
and Abercrombie and Fitch..

Before I met Hubbard himself,
his aides told me a little of his
background. To my query as to
the serious scientific associations
to which he belonged, they an-
swered, "The Explorers Club."

Thirty-nine-year-old ex-engineer
and science-fiction writer, L. Ron
Hubbard studied at George Wash-
ington University and spent most
of his time in Asiatic travel, he
claims a completely original discovery
and dismisses accusations
that he has borrowed from psychoanalysis,
shifted terms and thrown
in a few ideas for good measure.

After. some time, Hubbard himself
came out to meet me. A big
burly man with startling orange
hair, he was full of hearty charm
and buoyancy. He carried a gray
western hat, wore a bright colored
tie, and did not, as so many of the
others, look like a fanatic, He
could have passed for a Hollywood
director. Hubbard smiled engag-
ingly and field out his hand, "You
know," he said, "before I wrote
the book my friends advised me it
would cause a lot of trouble for
me. But the nice thing about it is
that nobody's mad at me,"

Shortly after this visit I learned
that two of Hubbard's top people
had resigned from the organization.
One was Mrs. Nancy Roodenburg
of the New York branch, and
Dr, Joseph Winter, who had written
the introduction to Dianetics,
I contacted Mrs. Roodenburg at
her home. She had never seen a
"clear" she told me and didn't
believe one could exist. Further
more, she didn't see eye to eye
with Hubbard on many things. But
she planned to continue practicing
Dianetics. Dr. Winter declined to
say why he decided to go on his
own way. However, he plans to
write a book on DianetIcs present-
ing it to the medical profession.
So, the split-up in the Dianetics
association does not mean a
disintegration in its power. It may even
be a branching out-and spreading
of the organization, giving it more
power than ever

But the seriousness of the
Dianetics question is not entirely
concerned with the money that
frantic people are investing in it.
There are real dangers in Dianetics.

Dr. Clarence Oberndorf, active
member of the Psychoanalytic
Society and Association, said in
reference to DianetIcs. "The
earliest record of memory previously
acquired is one and one half years
of age. Fantasies, of course, can be
built up in human minds that
explain earlier supposed memory.
However, the fantasy of prenatal
experience is a dangerous one. In
persons with severe mental disturbances,
the encouragement of such interuterine
fantasies may aggravate already dangerous
tendencies and cause insanity."
Patients with any. number of
diseases, such as diabetes, tuber-
culosis, cancer or leukemia, (Foun-
dation claim's to be treating such
a patient) may die while they are'
trying to rid themselves of en-
grams, Such ` people, led in by
promises of overnight cures and
painless treatments, may be de-
prived of the medical care 'they
need in order to survive.

No one knows quite how damaging
Dianetics can be to emotionally
disturbed patients. Already
there are cases on record of manics
touched off by the clumsy,
unschooled treatment. These people
were predisposed to insanity and
possibly it could have come about
some other way. But they might
have gone the rest of their lives
without a breakdown.

There is no way of telling what
effect Dianetics could have on you.
If you have faith, it might help in
much the same way as Christian
Science, snake cults, or Yogi. But
it could stir up enough emotional
upheaval to send you to an insane
asylum for the rest of your life.
Dianetics has caught on only because
many people are troubled
and sick. It sounds like the quick,
easy way to cure everything. Much
simpler than three years of analysis,
much easier than facing reality,
and much easier than taking
an insulin shot dally for diabetes,

But Dianetics is fraught with
danger. Death or insanity can be
its grisly accompaniments. Delay
in the treatment of tuberculosis,
arterior sclerosis, diabetes,
pernicious anemia or other Illnesses, .
may lead to irreversible changes.
At the very least, money spent
on Dianetics could pay for compe-
tent medical treatment that might
save your life.

THE END

"DIANETICS has no respect for and no
understanding of the complexities of
personality ... a symptom of a danger- -
ous trend . . . a crude biologism for :
which ethical values ore subordinated
to the urge for survival ... mixture of
oversimplified truths, half truths and .
plain absurdities."